Pistol Question

High Standard Victor 22 pistol. When uncocked it is very difficult to pull the slide back. It feels like the main spring is too strong. When cocked the slide opens easily and moves back and forth smoothly. Thank you for any help. HMB

hmb, when pulling the slide back when the hammer's not cocked, remember that it's not only working against the recoil spring but also it's cocking the hammer against it's considerable spring.....Bob Dodd

If the gun is cycling well and kicking the fired cases out 2 or three feet then it is safe to say everything is normal. If you are having a lot of jamming and the empty shells are barely exiting the gun then I would suspect some kind of friction problem either in the slide spring/guide or hammer spring. Also, if your slide stop is working correctly there really is no need to get to the hammer down action closed condition.

There is no way you should have to use a pry tool to open the slide. I would have this looked at by a gunsmith who is familiar with these guns. The several that I have owned over the years do not approach that level of stiffnesss. Take the barrel off and check to see if the slide moves freely on the frame. It may be a pinched rail or another type of obstruction.
Pat

It's funny you should bring this up. This past weekend, after a 20 year hiatus, I broke out my Victor and Supermatic Citation Military. I grabbed a box of 100 shells ($2.19 but 20 years old.

Both guns were made in Connecticut. The Victor functioned easily but the Supermatic took a great deal of force to open the gun just like yours did. I field stripped both, re lubed and went off to the range.

The Victor worked flawlessly, The Supermatic (same mechanism) would only fire one shell and then the trigger would not re cock. I could manually push the trigger forward and it would fire but would not reset.

When I got home I took apart the Supermatic and really cleaned it. I took off the left hand grip and a couple of related parts and promptly lost a vee spring. I found the spring and reassembled. The gun still does not function. There are a bunch of stamped steel parts that can easily get gummed up but I cannot see anything obviously wrong so I guess the Supermatic will have to go to the gunsmith.

If anyone is familiar with these guns any help would be appreciated. A name of a gunsmith who handles these fine guns would be helpful as well.

I bought a Victor that was not used for over 20 years and it would not operate properly. I completely stripped it and the old oil had varnished inside, keeping it from operating. Once I cleaned it and removed all the varnish, I lubed it with oil and it worked just fine. It may be more than most people can handle to completely disasemble one of these fine guns.
Pat

Wish I knew. I have a Victor that does the same thing. Well, not as bad as yours, but drop the hammer on a dud round and it's a chore recocking it. I've always just lived with it. A shame, it's a delight & one of my favorite .22 pistols. Now you have me curious. Maybe the answer's on a High Standard forum. I think I'll look around. Anyway I'm kind of pretty sure it's by design & not a defect in yours. Phil E